Use the labels in the right column to find what you want. Or you can go thru them one by one, there are only 14365 posts. Searching is done in the search box in upper left corner. I blog on anything to do with stroke.DO NOT DO ANYTHING SUGGESTED HERE AS I AM NOT MEDICALLY TRAINED, YOUR DOCTOR IS, LISTEN TO THEM. BUT I BET THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET YOU 100% RECOVERED. I DON'T EITHER, BUT HAVE PLENTY OF QUESTIONS FOR YOUR DOCTOR TO ANSWER.

Deans' stroke musings

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain!Just think of all thetrillions and trillions of neuronsthatDIEeach daybecause there areNOeffective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 493 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.My back ground story is here:http://oc1dean.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-background-story_8.html

Monday, October 17, 2016

UCLA Scientists "Jump-start" the Brain of a Coma Patient with New Device

A new ultrasound treatment by UCLA scientists was used to restart
brain activity in a 25-year-old man recovering from a coma. Before the
treatment, the man showed few signs of consciousness and understanding
speech, able to perform very limited movements. Three days after the
treatment, the man could fully understand language, communicated by
nodding his head and even fist-bumped one of the doctors.
“The changes were remarkable,” said Martin Monti, the study’s lead author and a UCLA associate professor of psychology and neurosurgery.
He elaborated on the technique which used a sonic stimulation device to excite neurons in the thalamus, the brain’s central processing hub. It is the area with a typically diminished performance in post-coma patients.

“It’s almost as if we were jump-starting the neurons back into function,” Monti said.
“Until now, the only way to achieve this was a risky surgical procedure
known as deep brain stimulation, in which electrodes are implanted
directly inside the thalamus. Our approach directly targets the thalamus
but is noninvasive.”

The device used is the size of a coffee cup saucer. According to the UCLA press release, it “creates a small sphere of acoustic energy that can be aimed at different regions of the brain to excite brain tissue”.

The researchers targeted the thalamus with low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation. Credit: Monti/UCLA.
Both the device and the technique, called low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation, was developed by another UCLA professor Alexander Bystritsky. He is the co-author of the study and founder of Brainsonix, a company that made the device.
The small amount of energy emitted by the device is safe for the patient.
Can this technique be used to help other patients recovering from
comas? The researchers are taking a wait and see approach. More studies
need to be done to see if they can get consistent results. UCLA
researchers will be testing the procedure on several more people in the
fall.

“It is possible that we were just very lucky and happened to have
stimulated the patient just as he was spontaneously recovering,”
cautioned Monti.

Monti hopes that if the technology pans out, their research will lead
to the creation of low-cost portable devices that can “wake up” the
brain of vegetative or minimally conscious patients.

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Questions or comments or would you like me to discuss something? I will try to answer, No medical diagnosis given or received. I am damned opinionated so don't expect fluff.

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Canoeing Moose

Just because my goal is to get back to canoeing and this moose is so ripped and cool looking. And he's even a solo paddler. But his right hand on the T-grip is wrong and the right arm should be extended.